Personal and/or recreational vehicles and various types of cargo are often transported in the bed of a trailer, truck, or van. Often, such trailer, truck, or van beds are used for many purposes and therefore integrated ramps systems are often to complex or expensive. Therefore, removable ramps provide economical solution to raise vehicles and/or cargo from the ground onto the height of the transport vehicle bed. These solutions are particularly suited for loading of work or recreational vehicles, for example ATVs, snowmobiles, motorcycles, riding lawn mower or lawn tractors, Bobcats, or forklifts. It will be recognized that other types of vehicles may be transported a well, including, but not limited to golf carts or cars.
While it may be desirable to provide a side lip on the opposed lateral edges of a ramp, ramp loading solutions that effectively provide such a lip in a durable and effective manner have been elusive to the industry. Ramp lips of low profile serve little restraining function and do little to retain wheel of a vehicle on the ramp. However, as the lip extends in height, the lip itself becomes fragile and susceptible to breaking under impact from the object to be transported. Breaking or failure of such a lip effectively defeats the purpose as it would not retain the object to be transported on the ramp. Additionally, embodiments of lips welded to the exterior of the ramp result in a welding seam precisely at the potential point of failure of the lip, for example due to the heat affected zone surrounding the weld, and places a manufacturing blemish from the weld itself which impairs the ability to position reflective tape or coatings along the side of the ramp, precisely at the level of the ramp deck, which may be particularly desirable. Therefore, new ramp solutions that provide for effective ramp curb in ramp section modules in a modular ramp construction are desirable in the field and unmet by currently available ramp solutions.
Exemplary embodiments of modular ramp solutions and exemplary uses thereof are disclosed in at least the following patent references: U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,299,517; 7,930,788; 8,061,943; 8,347,493; 8,448,278; and 8,640,826; all of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties.